When do the days of wisdom come?

Mar. 21st, 2017

Mar. 21st, 2017

Well, it appears we have gone straight from winter to summer. It was 92 here yesterday (33.3 Celsius) and today it is supposed to be around 88 (31.1). Everything is green and growing, but jeez this is too warm too early.

Anyway. Here are the last three books I've read ...

1) All Things Cease to Appear, by Elizabeth Brundage. I liked this a lot! Unfortunately I thought the ending was way too rushed and tied up much too neatly, but it was still a very good read. It's a ghost story/murder story (I'm calling it "murder story" instead of murder mystery because c'mon, there's really no mystery about who the killer is), with distinct echoes of Donna Tartt (a lead character is an art historian at a small upstate New York university) and Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley). The author does a great job of a place in time (the late '70s), and I'd be interested in picking up another book by her.

2) Hero of the Empire, by Candice Millard. (Actually it's a much longer title but I'm not going to type it all out kthx.) Omg I loved this. Millard has the wonderful ability to take a story we already know the answer to (Winston Churchill's capture and escape from the Boers during the Boer War) and make it nail-bitingly exciting. RISKS! CHILLS! THRILLS! WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Well, dead, but still. Somebody should make a movie of this. Two thumbs up! :D

3) Sweet Lamb of Heaven, by Lydia Millet. I wanted to like this. I really did. Woman hears voices in her mind, woman leaves creepy husband, woman finds refuge in run-down old motel on the Maine coast ... woman's story descends into New Age-y psychobabble about God, the language of trees and other plants, metaphysics, and an antagonist who is either God, the Devil, or a technological glitch in reality. I don't know. By the end, I didn't care. No stars, no thumbs up, wtf did I just read?

SO. Now I am reading David Halberstam's The Coldest Winter, which is about the Korean War. Figured I should learn about the first one before the next one starts. AMIRITE OR AMIRITE LOL :-P